Through these projects, the public will have increasing opportunities to engage with the arts, whether it’s in a school, in the media, or in their community, making our cities, towns, and neighborhoods more vibrant places to live.

This second round of fiscal year 2012 funding is provided through three grant categories:

Art Works supports the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts. The NEA received 1,624 eligible applications requesting more than $78 million in funding. Of those applications, 788 are recommended for a total of $24.81 million. Grant amounts range from $10,000 to $125,000 with an average grant amount of $31,490 and a median of $25,000.

Arts in Media supports the development, production, and national distribution of innovative media projects about the arts and media projects that can be considered works of art. In addition to the Art Works grants, 78 projects are recommended in the Arts in Media category for a total of $3.55 million. The NEA received 329 eligible applications under the Arts in Mediacategory, requesting more than $36 million in funding. Grant amounts range from $10,000 to $100,000 with an average grant amount of $45,513 and a median of $40,000.

Partnership Agreements extend the NEA’s reach and impact by providing support to the nation’s state arts agencies and regional arts organizations. Forty percent of all NEA grantmaking funds are designated for the nation’s state arts agencies, regional arts organizations, and their national service organizations. In total, the NEA awarded more than $48.8 million through this category for fiscal year 2012.

Connecticut groups receiving grants are:

Music Haven, Inc. New Haven, CT $25,000 To support a free, year-long, after-school music residency of the Haven String Quartet. Program components include twice-weekly instrumental music lessons, bi-monthly workshops, and mentoring from college students studying music.

Architecture Resource Center, Inc. New Haven, CT $35,000 To support Design Connections, a design education initiative. Architects, city planners, and museum educators will assist teachers in integrating the design arts into the classroom curriculum.

Pilobolus, Inc. Washington Depot, CT $40,000 To support the International Collaborators Project, a program which fosters creative collaboration with guest artists from different creative backgrounds. Guest artists will include film director Trish Sie, master juggler Michael Moschen, and choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui.

Institute for Community Research, Inc. Hartford, CT $35,000 To support the Cultural Heritage Arts Program. The project will provide for identification, documentation, and presentation of folk arts; training for community scholars; development of a website with online galleries and professionally produced videos; and a traveling exhibit on Connecticut's agricultural traditions, in collaboration with state offices of Historic Preservation and Tourism.

Institute for Community Research, Inc. Hartford, CT $30,000 CATEGORY: Art Works FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Folk and Traditional Arts To support the Southern New England Apprenticeship Program. In its 15th year, the project will bring together master artists and apprentices from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut to teach students from their community, presenting the results of their cooperative learning in a public event, community festival, or performance.

Connecticut State Office of the Arts, Dept. of Economic & Community Development Hartford, CT $738,100 CATEGORY: Partnership FIELD/DISCIPLINE: State & Regional To support Partnership Agreement activities.

Connecticut Historical Society Hartford, CT $50,000 To support online access of The Artist and the Connecticut Landscape. The project will involve digitization and cataloguing of 500 paintings from the Colonial Period through the early 20th century from the collections of Connecticut art museums such as the Lyman Allyn Art Museum in New London, the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, the New Britain Museum of American Art, and the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford.

Goodspeed Opera House Foundation, Inc. (aka Goodspeed Musicals) East Haddam, CT $50,000 To support a production of Carousel, with music by Richard Rodgers, book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein, and direction by Rob Ruggiero. In keeping with the theater's mission of preserving, producing, and advancing American musical theater, the production will include accompanying educational and outreach activities about the creative process of musical theater.

Connecticut College New London, CT $20,000 To support a series of performances during the Onstage at Connecticut College season. Presentations by David Dorfman Dance, theater groups the Civilians and SITI Company, and music ensemble S¿ Percussion will be accompanied by workshops and master classes for middle, high school, and college students.

New Haven International Festival of Arts & Ideas, Inc. New Haven, CT $50,000 To support cornerstone projects at the 2012 festival. The projects will include performances by Asphalt Orchestra, Mark Morris Dance Group, and Propeller Theater (England), a collaboration between poet Robert Pinsky and musicians Ben Allison and Lionel Loueke, and outreach activities, such as master classes and post-performance and panel discussions.

Wesleyan University (Consortium) Middletown, CT $34,000 To support the university's new Institute for Curatorial Practice. In partnership with Danspace Project, Wesleyan is launching the nation's first post-graduate professional certificate program in curatorial practice.

Elm Shakespeare Company New Haven, CT $10,000 To support a production from Shakespeare's canon directed by Artistic Director James Andreassi with accompanying educational and outreach activities. In tandem with free performances in New Haven's Edgerton Park, the project will include The Elm Scholars Program, a summer theater experience for New Haven youth to work and with professional actors, sound and lighting designers, and operators.

HartBeat Ensemble Hartford, CT $10,000 To support arts programming in a newly-developed multidisciplinary performance space in the commercial Hollander Building in downtown Hartford. The project will offer theatrical performances and multidisciplinary arts programming targeted to low- and moderate-income residents, and an affordable rehearsal and performance space for individual artists and small to mid-size companies.